A help desk service or support desk service is a service for assisting software users to fix problems in their software. Most software vendors offer their customers a support desk service.
Many variations of support desk services exist, but most involve some mechanism for allowing a software user to report a software problem to a support provider, typically the software developer or persons otherwise knowledgeable about the software. In one known implementation of a support desk service, customers are provided with a direct link to a support provider. More specifically, a customer may be provided with a communication path, such as a dedicated phone connection, that gives the customer 24-hour-a-day access to the support provider.
One example of the latter is a support desk service provided to customers of the SAP (more completely, SAP Aktiengesellschaft) R/3® system. The R/3® system originated in a mainframe computer environment and accordingly its users were typically high-end customers such as large corporations that could afford the associated costs. Because of their importance, these high-end customers expected and received direct access to support providers, in the form of direct, full-time communications links.
SAP has expanded into other markets and now offers, for example, a “Business One” software package targeted to small-to-midsize businesses. These kinds of customers typically cannot afford the cost of a direct link to a support provider. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a low-cost support desk service to such customers.